Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Comp at the Spot

I planned on a session at Flagstaff Saturday morning but upon parking the car, realized it was much too hot for serious bouldering and headed home. Phoenix can keep its weather, thanks, especially this late in September. Caolan suggested that I try the comp at the Spot, the first of the Spot Bouldering series and I decided that it might be fun. So at 4:30 I was in line with the rest of the climbers. The energy was palpable and the vibes were good; the problem was that the temperature inside was pushing 85-90 degrees. But for this type of event it doesn't matter. Everybody faces the same conditions and you just deal with it. After a quick warmup including Advanced 4, I tried the first Open problem and flashed it which is not typical for me. However the other lower Open problems rapidly shut me down so I tried the top four Advanced problems. I should have flashed A10, but did it 2nd try, then flashed A9. A7 proved impossible for me, even with the encouragement and beta from EZ Harrison. By this point I was pretty tired so A6 was skin-of-the-teeth 2nd try, literally pumping out on jugs. I think the range of problems that I did was between V7 and V3/4. Home to dinner and the Tigger movie with Sophia.

Overall, it was a good experience and today I felt pretty sore, not surprising since I haven't climbed in a gym in about a month. The type of problems encountered at the Spot are not found either outdoors or at CATS or my wall but I may be tempted to rethink some of the holds/problems on the home wall at this point.

This morning I took a quick run up Mt Sanitas' South Ridge finding it very manageable and taking 50 minutes for the entire loop, including the Dakota Ridge. Still hot, so no climbing today anyway.